Archive for the ‘Maharashtra’ Category

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday restrained the state police from transferring two suspected leaders of the banned Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Peoples’ War) from Chandrapur in Vidarbha till the next hearing on January 11.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrested Vernon Gonzalves and Shridhar Shrinivasan from Mumbai on August 19. They were handed over to the Anti-Naxalite Squad in September. Gonzalves’s wife Susan Abraham, a practising lawyer, filed a habeas corpus petition seeking to know the whereabouts of her husband and Shridhar.

While Shridhar is an alumnus of Elphinstone College, Gonzalves is a gold medallist from Mumbai University and a former lecturer at Ruparel College and HR College. Their family members have denied that they are Naxalites. The police, however, claim to have recovered incriminating documents and explosives from the duo.

Abraham’s lawyer Anand Grover told the court that the duo was being transferred from one police station to another and kept continuously in police custody for over 61 days. By law, police custody cannot exceed 15 days.

MAHARASHTRA Director General of Police Dr P S Pasricha said that joint operations by the police of Naxal-infested states appear to be more effective than having a central unified command to tackle the growing left-wing extremism in the country.

Speaking to mediapersons during a day’s visit to the Second Capital on Wednesday, Dr Pasricha had discussed the special plan to curb the Naxal menace with senior police officials and reviewed the anti-Naxalite operations. “We are preparing a proposal after identifying the Naxal-affected districts to seek some more assistance from the Centre,” he said. He added that state was also recommending to the Centre certain amendments in the existing laws to make a dent in activities of the outlaws. He said that the Maharashtra Police had succeeded in building tremendous pressure on the Naxals in the past two years by arresting their 11 top commanders. Similarly, he said, 122 Naxalites had surrendered under the state’s surrender policy. “We are working with our Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh counterparts in the joint operations against the Naxalites,” he added. He said that last year Gaon Bandi scheme was implemented in 242 villages by encouraging the rural masses to prevent Naxalites’ entry into the villages. “I’ve asked officers concerned to study how to make the scheme more effective,” he added. Dr Pasricha informed that the police were getting vital inputs from Central Intelligence agencies that had helped in conducting joint operations against the Maoists. The state police chief thanked Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his deputy R R Patil for giving an excellent pay package to the police personnel working in the Naxalite infested areas in the state. “If a constable dies in an encounter with the outlaws or in any landmine blast, his wife gets Rs 18.50 lakh under his special insurance policy. Even if he dies, his family gets monthly salary till the date of his retirement besides his financial dues. This has been done to encourage the police personnel fighting the Naxals,” he said. When asked, Dr Pasricha said that the police already had identified some frontal organisations of the Naxalites trying to spread the movement in the urban areas. ” We will initiate appropriate action against them but we won’t disclose out strategies at this moment,” he added.

CHANDRAPUR: Naxalites set ablaze three vehicles – two tippers and a truck – of a contractor on Wednesday evening. The incident took place near Haldwahi Tola village in Chamorshi tehsil of Gadchiroli district, said the police.

According to sources, the Naxals came to the village and after identifying the vehicles of the construction company – Sainath Constructions – set those ablaze. The Naxalites then disappeared into the jungle.

NAGPUR: A manhunt has been launched to nab the absconding active Naxalite, Warlu Pansingh Madavi. The Nagpur police too have started searching for Madavi, a source said.

Police sources confirmed that Madavi had accompanied Surekha during her stay in Wardha for tumour treatment. However, a couple of days ago he left Wardha and Surekha was accompanied by Ramdas. Similarly, the Wardha and Gadchiroli police have also launched massive hunt to nab him.

Sources said that Madavi was active for spreading pro-Naxal activities in the region, particularly in Gadchiroli district. On Monday, in a joint operation, the Wardha and Gadchiroli police raided a hotel in Wardha and arrested Karuna alias Surekha Tanu Veladi and Ramdas Hichhami, both active Naxalites from Gadchiroli-based Maoist outfit Platoon dalam and residents of Bhamragadh. Meanwhile, when produced in court, both Karuna alias Surekha Tanu Veladi and Ramdas Hichhami were remanded to police custody till December 16.

NAGPUR: A third Naxal-related incident took place in a row in Gadchiroli district on Monday evening, since the people liberation guerrilla army (PLGA) week began on December 2.

On Monday evening, an encounter took place at a place called Katta in Etapalli tehsil. Police claim three to four Naxals have been killed in this encounter, though the bodies could not be recovered.

The incidents began on Saturday with the Naxals blowing up a cell-phone tower of a private company. This was followed by an encounter over Bandiya bridge in which two Naxals were said to be injured in the gunbattle a day later.

The Monday evening encounter is the third incident in a row. “This was a tough operation for the police party as the Naxals were in larger numbers. A strategic position helped the cops,” said a source. The police have recovered a single-barrel gun, and two blasts of 15-20 kg each, said the source. Although the bodies could not be recovered, the blood stains are indicative of the toll, say cops.

In fact, the Naxals ensure that the bodies are not retrieved by the police as once the toll on their side is publicised, it would bring down the morale of their rank and file. Once their fellow falls to bullets, others open a heavy fire preventing the cops from approaching the body, and the dead are carried away under heavy cover fire, said a senior officer. A few bodies have been recovered during encounters in the year, said a source.

In fact, each year encounters with Naxalites go up during October to February while their activities are at an ebb during monsoons and summers. Movements are hampered due to slushy terrain and overflowing of rivers during rains. In summers when green cover dries up, they avoid encounters as a clean ground provides easy visibility to the police. This year around 4-5 encounters have taken place since October. Moreover, the police have also beefed up the security and have increased their movements in order to flush out the Naxals from their hideouts.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident Naxalites burnt two tractors of a private contractor Maksood Ahmed, engaged in construction of a road near Bakrundi village in Kurkheda tehsil of Gadchiroli during wee hours of Monday night.

CHANDRAPUR: At least three Naxalites were seriously injured in an exchange of fire that followed the police attack on a suspected Naxalite camp in the Paletola jungles of Etapalli taluka, Gadchiroli district, early on Saturday, Gadchiroli police have claimed.

The clash broke out when two C-60 teams, acting on a tip-off, police began combing the jungle in search of the Leftist rebels. They had almost zeroed in on the training camp when the sentries guarding the camp opened fire. Large quantities of explosives and Naxal literature were recovered, but the Naxals managed to flee the camp and escape into the forests.

According to Gadchiroli DSP Rajesh Pradhan, the police got a tip-off that Naxalites were holding a special training camp in Paletola jungle. Accordingly, two C-60 teams from Etapalli division were dispatched to locate the camp in the early hours of Saturday. At about 6.45 am, the police teams reached the vicinity of the camp. The sentries spotted the approaching commandos and immediately opened fire. A heavy exchange of fire continued for 15 minutes before the Naxalites, believed to be around 30-35 in number, fled from the spot. As the police searched the campsite, and found fresh bloodstains. The police claimed that at least three Naxals seriously injured in the clash were taken away by their comrades.

“At least three of them have sustained serious injuries in the exchange of fire,” said Pradhan. He said the search team recovered two live grenades, two Claymore mines, a land mine, detonator and 350 foot-long wire, five bags and one backpack.

NAGPUR: Maharashtra minister of state for transport and social justice Dharmaraobaba Atram has claimed to have received a threat to his life from Naxalites.

Atram was in his chamber in Mantralaya, Mumbai, when he allegedly received a phone call on Monday afternoon by Maoist rebels. The caller reportedly threatened him with dire consequences. The minister registered a complaint with the Mantralaya police.

Atram, who is also the guardian minister for Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district, was abducted by armed Naxalites in 1991. He was released after being held captive for 17 days.

Sources said, after Atram—who already has ‘Z’ category security, received the threat call, security around his residence was stepped up.

When contacted, Atram said he received a call, supposedly from a place in Andhra Pradesh. “I was told that they would not spare me this time. Stating that I had siphoned off Rs 1,000 crore meant for the area’s development, they said they would blow me up,” Atram said.

“I got the call on my cell phone the number was 08734-233662. I received the phone at around 12.30 pm and the secretariat has been informed about this,” he added.

Understanding the Naxalite movement requires traveling back in time when the romance of revolution was in the air and when many young men and women left their homes and worked in the rural hinterland.

Not all of these revolutionaries turned to violence and not every revolutionary was misguided.

For instance, nearly 50 years ago, caught up in the mood of the times, Niki Cardozo – then a traditional Jesuit priest in Bombay found himself traveling to a remote tribal village in Maharashtra.

In a couple of months, he realized that each of the 100-odd women there had been raped by the upper caste men at some point.

And when a young mother dared to complain to the police, the police turned on her.

”A group of us took whatever we could find to beat the cop. I picked up a knife. I was so angry. But the cop ran away. After that I have not picked up a knife,” said Niki Cardozo, Social Worker.

Although the often cruel nature of the state may have provoked him to violence, Niki Cardozo is not and has never been a gun-carrying Naxal.

But many others, who like him left their sheltered urban homes to travel to the rural hinterland, made a different and more violent choice.

The romance, the danger and the often misguided idealism of those times is captured brilliantly in Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi, as the youth – fresh out of universities – were disillusioned by a system that had failed to deliver the country of their dreams.

”The 1960s, you can imagine – Mrs Gandhi comes to power with the promise Garibi Hatao, which the youth soon discovered was an empty slogan and was a political tactic.”

”Say 20 years after Independence, the disenchantment with promise of independence was apparent. There were very serious famines, for example the 1967 Bihar famine. Those were very traumatic,” said Darryl D’Monte, Author, Journalist

The stories of these men were reported with more than a little sympathy by journalists like Bernard D’Mello.

”Those students and youth who were more sensitive to the problem of poor, the problem of India, were drawn towards the Naxal movement. They began to organize poor peasants, labourers and so on, and in a small way, it spread.”

”The epicenter in first half of the 1970s was really Kolkata. So if you contrast Mumbai with Kolkata up to early and the mid 1970s, the Naxalite movement was almost non-existent in a relative sense to that in Kolkata,” said Bernard D’Mello, Deputy Editor Economic and Political Weekly.

”In Mumbai, there were many sympathizers – some of whom were just camp followers and many of them had no idea of Marx or Lenin. They might have carried a little red book, but they certainly hadn’t read it. It was fashionable,” said Darryl D’Monte.

But in Bombay, for some it was not just the prevailing intellectual fashion that pushed them; it was actually their personal faith.

For some of Bombay’s young Catholics, it was the doctrine of Liberation Theology, which preached the need for social change.

That doctrine not only bore a striking resemblance to a Communist charter but also sat uneasily next to the Left’s aversion to religion.

It’s this odd mix of Liberation Theology and Marxism, which, for instance, drew someone like Vernon Fernandes into the more radical path of Naxalism.

”Liberation Theology is a mix of Christian option for poor and Marxist philosophy. It would fit into Vernon’s philosophy, like making option for poor,” said Kenneth Gonsalves, Brother of Vernon.

Today, some of these urban guerillas are in jail, while others have gone underground. Yet some others have returned to more respectable professions.

”We think Naxals are some kind of fringe idiots who have nothing better to do. But here are people who are putting their lives on the line, certainly their family, by working in remote inhospitable terrain with the risk of being shot by the army at any time.”

”And let me repeat that it’s misguided to take to arms; it’s misguided. But it’s a sign of the frustration of the very conditions,” said Darryl D’Montet.

The Mumbai police arrested two middle-class men from the eastern suburb of Govandi on Sunday afternoon for alleged links with the Naxal movement.

Two firearms, gelatin sticks and detonators were recovered from Vernon Gonsalves and Srinivasan Vishnu, said a spokesman of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).

The arrest of the duo brings into focus alleged Naxal sympathies among a few of Mumbai’s highly-educated, middle-class. In May, the police had similarily arrested Arun Ferreira, a science graduate of elite south Mumbai college St Xavier’s and once a trainee Roman Catholic priest. Ferreira is still in police custody, charged with waging war against the state.

Gonsalves and Vishnu will be produced before the Esplanade Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Monday afternoon. Sunil Deshmukh, ATS inspector with ATS said, “Vernon was found with firearms and explosives and has been booked under the Arms Act, Explosives Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.”

The ATS has also recovered from Gonsalves’ home literature that indicates his links with the Naxal movement in rural Maharashtra, said Deshmukh. A close relative of Vernon, requesting anonymity, told HT that Vernon and his wife Susan Abraham had worked among tribals in Chandrapur area between 1984 and 1994.

But Susan came back to Mumbai in 1994 after she gave birth to a son. Vernon, the relative said, then shifted his base to Nashik and had returned back to Mumbai last year. “Vernon was arrested when he went to buy some medicine from a chemist’s shop near his house in Mahakali caves at around 1.30 pm on Sunday,” said the relative.

The Gonsalves family, including his wife, was not informed about Vernon’s arrest till 12.30 am on Monday. “A column of policemen in three Qualis jeeps came to the house with a handcuffed Vernon. It was only then that we were informed of his arrest,” the relative said.

“The cops then went on a rampage searching all possible articles in the house. They finally left with the hard disk of his personal computer. We have been told that he was arrested with firearms. But ATS officials failed to quantify their claims,” the relative said.

His wife Susan was not allowed to call a legal representative and her mobile phone was confiscated. “The first call that Susan was allowed to make was at 7 am on Monday morning,” added the relative.

In May, the Hindustan Times ran a nine-part nationwide investigation explaining how armed groups were spreading their influence over the lives of 170 million people across the country sprawling triangle of violence — from Kashmir to Manipur to Andhra Pradesh. More than Rs 2,700 crores in development funds meant for extremist-affected districts were not spent in the past financial year.

Considering the fact that only six of the state’s 35 districts are affected by Left Wing extremism (LWE), Maharashtra has, over the years, registered a significant number of extremist incidents and related fatalities. According to the ministry of home affairs (MHA), incidents of Maoist violence in Maharashtra rose from 75 in 2003 to 84 in 2004, to a further 94 in 2005 and 98 in 2006. Related fatalities were 40, 17, 56 and 61 in the corresponding years. 16 fatalities were reported in 58 incidents in the first six months of 2007.

Whereas the MHA designates Maharashtra as one of the states where LWE has been kept under control, these figures, at least for 2007, are certainly comparable with the states like Orissa where the problem is present in 22 districts out of a total 30. Between January and June 2007, Orissa registered 17 fatalities in 45 incidents. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh, where all 23 districts of the state are affected, though strong police action has brought the problem down to a low scale, registered 61 incidents and 40 deaths in the first six months of 2007.

All the six LWE affected districts in Maharashtra (Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia, Yavatmal and Nanded) are located in the eastern part of the state, in the economically backward Vidarbha region, sharing borders with Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Geographical contiguity with, and the ‘spill over’ from, the Maoist affected districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh, as well as Rajnandgaon, Bastar, Kanker and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh, have been described as the principal reason for the extremism in Maharashtra.

The Maoists have also exploited the geographical conditions and terrain of these districts for their activities. According to the Maharashtra state Forest Department, 47.08 per cent of the total area in Gondia district is designated as ‘forest’; in Gadchiroli the forest area is 90.96 per cent; in Bhandara, 45.58 per cent; in Chandrapur, 46.69 per cent; in Yavatmal, 27.35 per cent; and in Nanded, 11.35 per cent. The scheduled tribe population – populations that have been highly vulnerable to Maoist mobilization – in these districts is also comparatively higher. With the state tribal percentage at 8.8 per cent, Gadchiroli’s tribal population is 38.3 per cent; Yavatmal, 19.2 per cent; Chandrapur, 18.11 per cent; Gondia, 18 per cent; Nanded, 8.8 per cent; and Bhandara, 8.6 per cent.

Given the existing challenge, the Maharashtra police, especially its Anti-Naxal Cell overseeing counter-Maoist operations, has claimed to have secured several successes in the recent past. Arrests and surrenders of the CPI-Maoist cadres are said to have been a major accomplishment of the Anti-Naxal Cell. Some of the incidents in which Maoist cadres were neutralised in just 2007 include:

January 15: Seven Maoists were arrested following a joint operation by the Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh police in a border village in the Gadchiroli district.

April 8: Four senior CPI-Maoist cadres surrendered at an unspecified location.

April 14: CPI-Maoist cadre, Kata Mainu Zuru, involved in several cases, was arrested near Fulbodi in the Pendhari area of Gadchiroli district.

April 14: Three Maoists, identified as Chhaya, Dilip and Shiva, surrendered before the Superintendent of police of Gadchiroli district.

September 13: Police neutralised a base training camp of the CPI-Maoist in Etapalli Tehsil (revenue division) in Jambiagatta range in the Gadchiroli district and arrested four unidentified teenage boys and three girls.

The Maharashtra police have also claimed to have curtailed the flow of cadres to Maoist ranks.

Maoist recruitment in both Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts is said to have been drastically reduced, forcing the outfit to wind up several of its dalams (armed squads) in the Gadchiroli and Gondia districts by June 2007 and shifting the existing cadres into Chhattisgarh. The dalams that have folded up include the Gamini, Kotagaon, Dhanora and Jimmalgatta.

Nevertheless, the Maoists have carried out attacks targeting not only state police personnel, government offices and infrastructures, but have also carried out a campaign against ‘police informers’ and their own surrendered colleagues. In the first three months of 2007, at least eight surrendered Maoists were killed by their former comrades in Gadchiroli, Gondia and Chandrapur districts. At least four incidents of suspected police informers being killed by the Maoists have been reported from Gadchiroli district in 2007 (till end-September).

Police ‘successes’ have, in fact, been largely incidental, and the state’s anti-Maoist policy suffers from several drawbacks. Each of these existing loopholes has the potential of allowing the Maoists to regain their lost bases.

Among the state’s initiatives is the Gaonbandi (no entry to the villages) scheme that has been implemented since 2003, to prevent the Maoists from exploiting, mobilizing and recruiting the villagers. As part of the Scheme, any local village body or panchayat passing a resolution barring entry to the Maoists, is provided with Rs 200,000, to be paid in two instalments. Regrettably, the implementation of the Scheme has been far from adequate. Till the end of 2006, only 112 of the total of 324 Gaonbandi villages (villages that had banned Maoist entry) had been given the assured funds. Of these, only 73 villages received the full amount of Rs 200,000. In November 2006, the Maharashtra government increased the reward amount to Rs 300,000, to be paid in one instalment. However, the Scheme continues to be marred by a poor record of disbursement of the promised funds.

The state police’s surrender scheme, introduced on August 29, 2005, has also faced problems of fund shortage. The policy offers Rs 200,000 for a dalam commander, Rs 100,000 for his deputy, Rs 75,000 for dalam members, and Rs 40,000 to Rs 5,000 to lower rank cadres who surrender. The state government had initially decided to keep aside Rs 50 million for the scheme, only to withdraw this amount, asking the perennially cash-strapped police department to meet the expenses from its regular fund. By February 2007, Maharashtra police chief, P. S. Pasricha, was expressing concerns about the shortage of funds and its negative impact on the surrender policy.

Similarly, little success appears to have achieved in terms of disrupting the Maoist network that has targeted the forest areas in the Vidarbha region through any state scheme to deliver financial benefits. Way back in December 2000, deposing before the Estimates Committee of the state legislature, then Principal Secretary (Home) M.R. Patil had stated that forest contractors, tendu leaf (leaves of diospyros melonoxylon used for rolling bidis) traders and local businessmen in the Maoist -affected areas of Maharashtra were being forced to fund the extremists in the state out of fear. According to state police officials, Gadchiroli district alone, had been coughing up nearly Rs 140 million every year from the trade in tendu leaves and bamboo produce. Of late, teakwood smuggling from Gadchiroli forests had overtaken extortion from tendu leaf and bamboo contractors, as the prime venture for Maoist resource generation. The largest proportion of this trade reportedly occurs on the banks of the Godavari River, along the Maharashtra-Andhra Pradesh border in south Gadchiroli.

Money passing into Maoist coffers ranges between Rs 200 to 500 for a 3.70 metre-long plank of teakwood.

The orientation of the anti-Maoist strategy in Maharashtra appears to be prejudiced heavily towards containing the violent potential of the outfit. Accordingly, the Maharashtra Police have invested substantially on augmenting the fighting capabilities of its force. At the forefront of anti-Maoist operations in the Vidarbha region is a Special Action Group (SAG) of 300 specially trained Armed police personnel, raised in 2006 on the lines of the Greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh. Trained at the Unconventional Operations Training Centre (UOTC) at Hingana on the outskirts of Nagpur, SAG personnel have been deployed in Gadchiroli, Gondia and Bhandara districts.

The Maharashtra Police can rightly take credit for having contained Maoist violence within manageable limits, but there appears to be a bigger challenge at hand: countering the emerging Maoist potential to carry out urban operations. Three arrests in 2007 have brought this tactic into the open, as the Maoists consolidate capacities in urban centres to station their propaganda units and middle and senior level strategists.

On May 8, the Nagpur police arrested Arun Ferreira, the Maoist communications and propaganda strategist, and a Maoist ‘divisional secretary’ Murali Sattya Reddy, from the Deekshabhoomi area, seizing a 9mm Chinese-made pistol, two magazines, 16 rounds of ammunition, two VCDs, an MP3 CD, and a notepad containing information on the manufacture of improvised explosive devices and the use of walkie-talkies in operations.

On August 19, two Maoists – Vishnu alias Shridhar Krishnan Shrinivas, Maharashtra ‘state secretary’ and a member of the central politburo, and Vikram alias Vernon Gonzalez, a National Committee member – were arrested from the outskirts of Mumbai. Six gelatine sticks, one hand grenade, revolvers and cash were recovered from them, in addition to incriminating documents, CDs and pen-drives.

On August 20, in a joint operation with the Andhra Pradesh police, the Anti-Terrorism Squad of the Maharashtra police arrested K. D. Rao, a lawyer practising in the Bombay High Court, outside the YMCA hostel near Colaba in Mumbai for his alleged links with the Maoists and involvement in the killing of a police officer six years ago.

Maoist mobilisation and networks have long been suspected in Maharashtra’s urban centres, including Nashik, Pune and state capital Mumbai. A large number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in these urban areas are believed to be funding and otherwise supporting the Maoists. In 2006, the state intelligence department had blacklisted 59 such Mumbai-based NGOs. Nevertheless, Maoist consolidation in urban Maharashtra is believed to be continuing apace, with the police handicapped by a wide range of legal and constitutional constraints that prohibit significant action against over-ground collaborators, and a conscious effort on the part of the Maoists to exploit every available democratic loophole.

Operational successes by the police are, no doubt, significant. Much more will, however, be needed in terms of a strategy of containment and defence against the creeping Maoist consolidation in widening areas of the state, and to plug the unique vulnerabilities of a democratic system, compounded by the structural infirmities and lack of resources committed to policing in the state, and across the country. The recent police ‘successes’ provide little grounds for the euphoric statements that followed, and the Maoists challenge can be expected to hang heavy over Maharashtra for some time to come.

Bibhu Prasad Routray is Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management. Courtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal